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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. court — of law
  4. cold — not warm
  5. face — part of the head
  6. land — a country
  7. capital — a city
  8. land — to come down
  9. rash — hasty
  10. court — of a king
  11. face — to point toward
  12. cold — an illness
  13. land — ground
  14. face — to confront
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. cell — a phone
  17. season — of the year
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. capital — money
  22. season — in sport
  23. rash — a series
  24. cell — in biology

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com